Recommended approaches for NVR

[PASUK]

Hi

I have been using a Hikvision 8MP 180 IP camera (DS2CD2387G2PLSU/SL) at a property, a great piece of kit. Connected for monitoring and recording to a spare computer on the same network running software called Shinobi Video. HDD is a WD Purple. Shinobi has been ok, but not great and this setup was only temporary. The biggest issues was the software was glitchy and didn’t maximise all the capabilities of the camera. The computer hardware now needs to be repurposed although the WD purple has more mileage left in it can can be reused in the new setup.

I’m wondering which way to go with respect to monitoring and recording and open to all ideas from the forum. Dedicated NVR? If so which? Cloud based? Or setup another PC based system?

Currently, I only have this one camera but in a year or so I can expect to add two more IP cameras and possibly a IP PoE doorbell camera.

I have a PoE switch in my network to run all this.
I do like Hikvision and would like to stick to one brand for cameras, but not totally against mixing and matching if there is a good reason.

thanks in advance

 

[secureiam]

before you go down the NVR route you do need to take into account what will be connected to it, from what your telling me it will be at least 8 channel to have enough bandwidth if your having 8MP cameras and 3 or 5mp doorbell

 

[PASUK]

Thank you @secureiam . For now I only have 1x 8mp camera. But yes the plan is to get a couple of more cameras and one doorbell. So I think 8 channel is good.

I spotted this one which is around the budget I was thinking: DS-7608NXI-K2/8P

It has PoE ports for up to 8 cameras (which is more than I'll ever need) but crucially it can decode up to three 8MP streams which if I understand correctly is about what you can see on a screen live at the same time, but still record in full quality more cameras for potential download later. So Decode if I understand correctly should be fine and even if I need to show more live streams then I could go HD for up to 8 cameras from what I can see on the Data sheet.

I also looked at incoming bandwidth which is 80 Mbps. I assumed that irrespective of decoding capacity it overall is limited to how much it can consume and record. (again if I understand correctly). So if my calculations are correct this allows for something like:

1x camera 1 main stream at 8mp high quality H.264 at 15FPS ~ 13Mbps
1x camera 1 sub-stream at 2mp high quality H.264 at 15FPS = 3Mbps
That's ~16Mbps which means theoretically I should be able to do this x 5 before I max out at 80Mbps but I expect to have two other cameras and one doorbell not all running at the same high quality.

The supplier is highly encouraging me to consider the DS-7608NI-M2/8P for future proofing reasons but it's £100 more and not sure I'll get the benefit from it.

Thought I'd see what you and the forum thinks

 

[secureiam]

not sure why you want run a camera on such low frame rates compared to is capability, you can lose information.

that said bandwidth is the curse, the more data the more channels, I dont have 8 full channels but need a 16 channel NVR to run them as 8 channels were not enough to cope with the bandwidth demands at full res and fps. There is scope mind to add more cameras.

 

[PASUK]

thank you. the camera has what Hikvision brand as ColorVu which is colour images at night using white light rather than IR and WDR settings. I think what is happening is when you switch on WDR and colorVu the max framerate drops as the image sensor accumulates more info per frame. I have to say I am impressed by the colour images I get with such little light overnight, colour happens to be important for this area and we can't add extra light without causing other issues (long story). But this means 15fps is our limit on this camera but is actually working well for what is needed at this location.